Self-improvement in Self Isolation

Here is that chance you have been longing for to grab some of the most insightful reading to prepare for your bright future when things get back to normal. Some top titles to grab from Australian bookstores supporting the local economy like Booktopia:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, tells you to forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people – at work, at school, at home. Pink explains in his paradigm-shattering book the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today’s world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world.

The Confidence Gap from Australian based author Dr Russ Harris is a hands-on, self-help guide to gaining long-lasting confidence and overcoming fear using mindfulness-based therapy. Apparently most of us are playing the ‘confidence game’ using the wrong rules!

Forever Skills by Australians Kieran Flanagan and Dan Gregory will set you up for life. In a world where the constant conversation is ‘what ’s changing’ they explore ‘what isn’t changing?’ What are the skills that will see us succeed no matter what else changes around us? They will help you get ahead in business and in life.

StressLessoffers a proven method to reduce stress, manage anxiety and lift your mood. Clinical psychologist Dr Michael Player and bestselling author-illustrator Matthew Johnstone use their own experience to help you recognise stress in your day-to-day life and apply techniques to manage symptoms. Currently at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre and previously a researcher at the Black Dog Institute, Michael’s techniques, illustrated by Matthew, will help you recognise the thinking patterns that lead to stress, disentangle yourself from stressful activities, relax using breathing, stretching, meditation and mindfulness, do more with your time, problem solve, and nurture relationships.

Trailblazer is a guidebook to help leaders, employees and customers to prepare for the next phase of global capitalism: the arrival of business for good. According to Richard Branson it is ‘Urgent and compelling’. If you have felt for too long that business focuses too much on profit and not enough on its responsibilities then ‘Innovator of the Decade’ Marc Benioff shows how all of that can change – for the better.

Any Ordinary Dayby Leigh Sales might just be the tonic right now as is explores blindsides, resilience and what happens after the worst day of your life! The day that turns a life upside down usually starts like any other, but what happens the day after? Dual Walkley Award-winner Sales investigates how ordinary people endure the unthinkable.

And if you really just want some perspective on the world as we know it – you have to try this one.

Sapiens – A Brief Historyof Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. This international bestseller is a thrilling account of humankind’s extraordinary history – from insignificant apes to rulers of the world. 100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? Good question!